Hi David, Good to see you're still with us! :-) >> The other is, if I say: >> s[2] = "seph likes ruby a lot" >> >> It should print out: >> Joseph likes ruby a lot. DAB> It does, doesn't it? DAB> irb 1> str = "Joe" DAB> ==>"Joe" DAB> irb 2> str[2] = "seph likes ruby a lot." DAB> ==>"seph likes ruby a lot." DAB> irb 3> str DAB> ==>"Joseph likes ruby a lot." It sure does! What was I thinking! For some reason I thought that wouldn't work. Okay, well that makes for a smaller RCR :-) -joe